A Cal Fire strike team rolls past a burning hillside on Jordan Hill...

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A dozer rolls down Jordan Hill Road in heavy smoke in Concow, Calif., on Wednesday, July 9, 2008.Photo by Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

A dozer rolls down Jordan Hill Road in heavy smoke in Concow,...

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The Camp Fire burns in Concow, Calif., on Wednesday, July 9, 2008. Part of the larger Butte Lightning Complex Fire, the Camp Fire destroyed or damaged at least 20 structures in the past 36 hours.Photo by Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

The Camp Fire burns in Concow, Calif., on Wednesday, July 9, 2008....

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A burned-out car lies down an embankment off Jordan Hill Road in Concow, Calif., on Wednesday, July 9, 2008. It is unknown if the car went off the road as a result of the fire or if it was already there when flames raced through the area.Photo by Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

A burned-out car lies down an embankment off Jordan Hill Road in...

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Flames consume a forested area off Concow Road in Concow, Calif., on Wednesday, July 9, 2008.Photo by Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Flames consume a forested area off Concow Road in Concow, Calif.,...

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Firefighters defend a Concow home from advancing flames.Photo by Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Melted patio chairs and an outdoor fireplace is seen near a burned out home in the Camelot subdivision in Concow, Calif., on Wednesday, July 9, 2008.Photo by Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Melted patio chairs and an outdoor fireplace is seen near a burned...

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GOLETA, CA - JULY 06: U.S. Forest Service Hot Shots set a backfire near a house to try to contain the Gap fire, officially the top priority fire in the state, on July 6, 2008 near Goleta, California. The 6,860-acre Gap fire is spreading across the chaparral-covered Santa Ynez Mountains of the Los Padres National Forest, drawing closer to many houses that were rebuilt after the1990 Painted Cave fire destroyed 400 homes. An estimated 4,000 people have evacuated from about 1,700 homes in the path of the fire. President Bush has declared a state of emergency for all of California in response to more than 1,400 fires that were mostly started by dry lightning storms crossing the state on June 20. More than 300 continue to burn. Making matters worse for the more than 19,000 firefighters from 42 states battling the California wildfires, drought is wicking moisture from the vegetation which leads fire experts to fear a possible repeat of the firestorms of 2003 and 2007 that destroyed thousands of homes in southern California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Photo: Getty Images

GOLETA, CA - JULY 06: U.S. Forest Service Hot Shots set a backfire...

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GOLETA, CA - JULY 06: U.S. Forest Service Hot Shots set a backfire near a house to try to contain the Gap fire, officially the top priority fire in the state, on July 6, 2008 near Goleta, California. The 6,860-acre Gap fire is spreading across the chaparral-covered Santa Ynez Mountains of the Los Padres National Forest, drawing closer to many houses that were rebuilt after the1990 Painted Cave fire destroyed 400 homes. An estimated 4,000 people have evacuated from about 1,700 homes in the path of the fire. President Bush has declared a state of emergency for all of California in response to more than 1,400 fires that were mostly started by dry lightning storms crossing the state on June 20. More than 300 continue to burn. Making matters worse for the more than 19,000 firefighters from 42 states battling the California wildfires, drought is wicking moisture from the vegetation which leads fire experts to fear a possible repeat of the firestorms of 2003 and 2007 that destroyed thousands of homes in southern California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Photo: Getty Images

GOLETA, CA - JULY 06: U.S. Forest Service Hot Shots set a backfire...

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Kelly Sorenson, executive director of Ventana Wildlife Society at the Basin Complex Fire In Big Sur, Calif. on Tuesday July 8, 2008, checks out the burned out area around the cabin close to where condor pens were located. Fire crews have been straining to cover 330 active California wildfires, many of which were ignited by a lightning storm more than two weeks ago. (AP Photo/Monterey County Herald, Orville Myers)

Photo: Orville Myers, AP

Kelly Sorenson, executive director of Ventana Wildlife Society at...

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** ADDS LOCATION OF FIRE ** Fire Capt. Sam Cousins overlooks the fire burning in southern Southern Barbara from his post along West Camino Cielo, in Santa Barbara, Calif. Tuesday, July 8, 2008. Homes in southern Santa Barbara County are still threatened by another fire in the Los Padres National Forest above the city of Goleta. (AP Photo/Santa Barbara News-Press, Mike Eliason)

Photo: Mike Eliason, AP

** ADDS LOCATION OF FIRE ** Fire Capt. Sam Cousins overlooks the...

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Firefighter Cody Cox of Colorado looks over a burned redwood forest while working to control hot spots during a wildfire in Big Sur, California July 7, 2008. Fire crews have managed to defend the village of Big Sur but the fire is only 11 percent contained and is expected to rage until the end of July. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith (UNITED STATES)

A firefighter works to control a hot spot during a wildfire in Big Sur, California July 7, 2008. Fire crews have managed to defend the village of Big Sur but the fire is only 11 percent contained and is expected to rage until the end of July. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith (UNITED STATES)

Tamara Roberts sent an e-mail to a relative on Monday, assuring her that this mountain community of 26,000 people along the Feather River had survived its latest brush with wildfire.

"We're safe," Roberts wrote.

But in the middle of the night, winds shifted, and the blaze exploded anew. Flames jumped containment lines, and on Tuesday morning, Roberts fled from her home.

The Butte Lightning Complex Fire, which had burned only two homes since it was sparked by lightning June 21, destroyed 48 more that day.

By Wednesday, 10,000 people had been evacuated, including a third of the town of Paradise and its only hospital, and the blaze threatened 3,800 homes. Firefighters were trying to keep flames from leaping west over the Feather River and into a town that lost 74 homes to a wildfire last month.

Only three days ago, the latest fire seemed under control. Then, in the words of firefighters, the blaze "blew up," jumping containment lines. It raced through Concow, a community east of Paradise and about 22 miles north of Oroville.

"It was dangerous," said Battalion Chief Mike Brown of the state fire agency, who directed the ensuing nine-hour firefight from a meadow.

Firefighters had been trying to burn away vegetation near the town in a last-ditch effort to save homes, but that operation was halted at 11 p.m. Monday, said Mike Mohler, a spokesman for the state fire agency.

"We knew the winds were coming, but we thought we had it buttoned up," Mohler said. "It's discouraging for it to blow up like that."

By early Tuesday morning, hundreds of people had been evacuated. By 3 a.m., Mohler said, the fire had grown "like somebody had turned on a light switch."

Burning embers - pinecones and bark chunks as big as baseballs - were thrown a quarter of a mile ahead of the primary wall of flames, creating spot fires. "You can't see out a quarter mile," Brown said. "When you find the new fire, it's already a big fire."

Crew safer in house

Firefighters desperately cleared debris from roofs and gutters, set landscaping ablaze and cut away wood decks with chain saws to try to save homes. At one point, nearly a dozen firefighters were trapped by advancing flames and had to take cover inside a home they were trying to save, Brown said.

"That was the last, best alternative," Brown said. "That's an example of the unpredictability of the fire. You'd think you would be safer outdoors."

When the fire edged by, the crews emerged and attacked the flames again, saving the home and avoiding injury.

The fire leveled a circle of mobile homes along Concow Road, leaving only a single orange and white trailer intact - its survival inexplicable as it stood surrounded by unrecognizable ash and debris.

Flames tore through the private Camelot subdivision as well, where the only recognizable items remaining at one site were an air-conditioning unit, a water heater, a metal tool cabinet and a dish rack full of colored plates and mugs. A large oak tree out front had fallen and burned.

Nearby, Bob Modell had refused to leave when county sheriff's deputies drove through Camelot at 2 a.m. Tuesday, barking evacuation orders through loudspeakers. The 57-year-old Caltrans land surveyor stayed to save his barn-red A-frame, where he and his wife, Helena, have lived for 18 years.

His wife fled with the couple's two dogs, three cats and two birds, but Modell stayed and put out hot spots near his home all night with a series of garden hoses hooked up to a well and a generator.

"The fire was coming straight down the hill. I stopped it at the fence," he said. "This is the end of the fire."

Modell said he was able to save a neighbor's house as well, even as the surrounding grass and trees were scorched. He acknowledged the risk he took, but he said he felt he had no choice if he wanted to save his home.

"I love it here and I don't want to live anywhere else," he said.

Life in Paradise is also uprooted, much as it was June 13 when the Humboldt Fire roared through the southern part of town. That blaze destroyed 74 homes and damaged 20 more, causing an estimated $8.5 million in damage.

"These are people who have been evacuated several times in the last month," said Cheri Patterson, a spokeswoman for Cal Fire. "This fire season has been really rough on this community."

Fire is coming to define the life of Butte County. The air is choked with smoke, the roads full of engines, the conversations laced with fear for what might come next.

After fleeing her home in her trailer, Roberts parked at a church across town as her husband stood his ground at the couple's home.

"We need it to rain," said Roberts' husband, Seth, a teacher and sports coach at Paradise High School who is defying the evacuation order. "We need God to shower us with blessings."

On Wednesday, more evacuations were ordered, this time from the remote and rugged communities of Jarbo Gap, Yankee Hill and Big Bend along Highway 70, in an area where the 48 homes burned.

As of Wednesday evening, the Butte fire had burned 49,000 acres and cost the state $37 million to battle.

Fire likely to grow

The fire was 45 percent contained or surrounded, but with a forecast of hot weather, dry conditions and gusty winds, fire officials expected it to grow.

"We'll see if the box holds tonight," Steve Maiero, a Contra Costa County battalion chief acting as a spokesman for fire officials, said Wednesday.

Nearly 2,900 firefighters - who are expected to be visited by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today - are fighting the 14 fires that are part of the Butte Complex. At least one arrest has been made; as in the Basin Complex Fire at Big Sur, a resident tried to protect his home by lighting a back fire, officials said.

The power of the fire in dry conditions was displayed on Tuesday morning, hours after Tamara Roberts typed her e-mail.

Though the flames have so far been halted across the Feather River, residents and firefighters were worried about winds Wednesday night that were expected to gust up to 45 mph - the same kind of weather that pushed the fire over containment lines and into Concow.

Seth Roberts said he planned to spend a second night sitting in the pale-yellow home he and his wife built 15 years ago, watching pine trees closer to the Feather River in case they catch fire. He has cleaned out his gutters, cut down branches near the house, and is occasionally pointing sprinklers at his roof to wet it down.